The present invention relates to a spring manufacturing apparatus and to a wire guide used for the apparatus and, more particularly, to a spring manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing a spring by forcibly bending, curving, or winding a wire to be formed into a spring in a spring forming space near the distal end of a wire guide with a tool while continuously feeding the wire.
In a conventional spring manufacturing apparatus, a pair of feed rollers for feeding a wire are fixed, and a cutting tool for cutting the wire in cooperation with a mandrel is slidably mounted in the vertical direction. The distance between the rotation center of the feed rollers and the cutting tool is constant owing to the structure of the apparatus, and the length of a wire guide for feeding a wire is also constant.
In the conventional spring manufacturing apparatus, no problem arises even if there is a slight space between the wire guide and the feed rollers or between the wire guide, the mandrel, and the tool as long as the diameter of a wire is 1 mm or more. In forming a very thin wire with a diameter of 100 xcexcm or less, however, the wire protrudes from this slight space, and hence the wire guide must be accurately manufactured so as not to form such a space. In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, if a wire guide is divided in the wire feed direction, the distance from the inlet side to the outlet side of the wire guide or from the feed rollers to the tool increases, and wire insertion holes formed through the wire guides must be accurately aligned with each other.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, and has as its object to provide a spring manufacturing apparatus which can easily adjust the positional relationship between the feed direction of a wire fed from a wire guide and a tool.
In order to solve the above problem and achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a spring manufacturing apparatus which has wire feed means for feeding a wire to be formed into a spring from an end portion of a wire guide toward a spring forming space, and tool means placed to retractably move into the spring forming space, and which manufactures a spring by forcibly bending, curving, or winding the wire with the tool means while feeding the wire from the wire feed means into the spring forming space near the distal end portion of the wire guide, wherein the wire feed means is supported to allow a position of the wire feed means relative to the tool means to-be variable. Since the wire feed means is supported to make the position of the wire feed means relative to the tool become variable, the positional relationship between the feed direction of a wire-fed from the wire feed means and the tool can be easily adjusted.
Furthermore, the wire glide is integrally formed in the wire feed direction. As a result, protrusion of a wire can be prevented, the structure of the guide is simplified, and mounting of the wire is facilitated.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.